The Great Barrier Reef will soon be the most monitored reef in the world with the application of a "digital skin" of sensors that will make possible the finest resolution picture ever of the region's dynamic systems.
The fate of an unfortunate reef shark, caught and eaten 80 km from where it was tagged in a Sanctuary Zone in the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park off the Western Australian coast, is helping to unravel the mysterious life and movements of sharks.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) will undertake a baseline environmental study of Scott Reef, off Western Australia's Kimberley coast about 430 kilometres north of Broome. The project is funded by Woodside Energy on behalf of the Browse Joint Venture.
Knowledge of life on coral reefs will be boosted from this Wednesday (2 April 2008) when a team of scientists led by AIMS heads for Lizard Island, north of Cairns, for the first CReefs Australian expedition.
In the first observation of its kind, a coral community in the southern inshore region of the Great Barrier Reef is showing signs of adjusting to higher sea surface temperature by quickly changing its main algal partners to types that can better cope with the heat.
Environmental stresses, including warmer and more acidic seawater, may be affecting the development of the ear bones in young reef fish, causing the fish to get lost at sea during a crucial stage of their development.
All media are invited to visit AIMS on Tuesday 11 March to meet scientists participating in a workshop on the growing issue of ocean acidification.
Worrying signs that warmer seawater combined with a possible change in the ocean's acid balance may be curtailing the growth of an important reef-building coral species have been documented by a research team from AIMS in Townsville.
A new paper, published in the leading evolutionary journal, The American Naturalist, investigates the potential for corals to evolve greater resistance to bleaching.
One of the world's leading microbiologists will join the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in February 2008 to lead and develop their Marine Microbiology Research.
